TWIGS and TREES

Family history and genealogy research on both my ancestors & my ex-husband's ancestors, with personal memories, family photographs, old maps, and more. Ancestors from Northern Ireland, Northern England, Midlands England, Germany, and the Netherlands: all immigrants to North America, from very early 1600s onwards. Pilgrims to Palatines, finding my roots is a big adventure!

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Wednesday, February 25, 2015

This year's challenge by Amy Crow is another weekly blog, but based on Themes. Last week, it was LOVE. This No. 8 week's theme is GOOD DEEDS. Well that was a bust - I couldn't think of, or find a story involving good deeds. Sigh. I'll just pick someone and move on, writing about my somewhat challenging ancestors! I have been digging through the collateral relationships of my BUNN & WHITEHOUSE ancestors, hoping for nuggets. My father's mother was a BUNN, and her mother was a WHITEHOUSE. An English acquaintance snorted on finding they lived in Dudley region: "If you throw a rock in that area you'll hit a Bunn, and if you throw three rocks you'll hit a Whitehouse". Hmmm. Sounds challenging to find my particular ancestors, doesn't it?! Let's look at Thomas WHITEHOUSE, my 2nd great-grandfather. As far as I can be certain, he was born 10 Jul 1829 in Rowley Regis, Staffordshire, but moved to Dudley (which was very near!) as a young man. Although we know from his marriage and birth records that he had a father Joseph, and a mother Mary, I am not at all sure of his parents and siblings. Too many similar names in the same parish and region.Thomas married for the first time in approximately 1851 to a Sarah (unknown). I have not requested this marriage certificate as yet. Unfortunately she appears to have died within 2 years, perhaps by illness or through childbirth complications. In Dudley Worcester on 31 Aug 1856, Thomas married a young widow with a daughter, Sarah PRICE, (previously married to Thomas Shutt). I have the Marriage Certificate for the couple, plus the birth record for their 2nd child, Sarah Elizabeth, my ancestor. It was rather disconcerting to realize that Thomas married two women named Sarah, and Sarah married two men named Thomas.Thomas WHITEHOUSE, b. 10 July 1829, Rowley Regis, Staffordshire, married 31 Aug 1856 to his 2nd wife, Sarah PRICE, (previously married to Thomas Shutt), b. abt 1827. They had the following children (Sarah's daughter Nancy "Ann" used the surname Whitehouse in Censuses): 1. Nancy "Ann" (Shutt), b. Jun 1853 Netherton; m. "?Homer" (no records found to date) 2. Sarah Elizabeth,[ancestor], b. 7 Nov 1858 Dudley, d. 30 Sep 1928, Barrow; m. 18 Aug 1879 to George BUNN; 9 children 3. Thomas jr., b. Dec 1860 Dudley; d. as infant 4. Benjamin "Ben", b. Mar 1867; m. 1890 to Margaret "Maggie" (?Milray); 1 son known (William) 5. Henry, b. 1869; m. 1889 in Barrow to Martha (unknown); 1 daughter known (Blanche) 6. William "Billy", b. 1871; m. 3rd Q 1889, Florence "Florrie" Milray; 4 boys 7. Enoch, b. 1875; no other information added as yet.I've only just realized while typing this list that there are about 6 years between #3 and #4 child, and I'm wondering if there was another child born in that time. Sometimes one needs to look with fresh eyes at the known details to see the unknown details! Thomas worked in iron foundries most of his working life as a "Furnace Man," as can be found on Censuses, in the "Black Midlands" - first in Dudley area, then up north in Barrow. The family moved from Dudley/Netherton area in Worcester up to Barrow-in-Furness, at some point after 1881. Thomas, Sarah, Ben & new wife Margaret, William and Enoch are seen on the 1891 Census living at 39 Byron Street. Nancy and Sarah Elizabeth were out of the home at this, married.At about the same time, just before 1881, my GILLESPIE family moved to Barrow from Northern Ireland, so clearly there was good work prospects in Barrow at this time. I don't have full death dates for either Thomas & Sarah WHITEHOUSE, although I can see Sarah died in Barrow in the 4th Q 1895. On the 1901 Census in Barrow, Thomas is found, widowed, living with his middle son, Ben & wife Margaret, with their only son William. Thomas died in the 3rd Q 1909, aged 80 years. I'm assuming he's buried in Barrow, but some of the headstones are missing, and I haven't found records of his burial to date.With more digging in Parish Registers and other records, I may yet get more specific details on Thomas, the Whitehouse children, and also manage to specify Thomas' parents and siblings. If you have more information to share please do not hesitate to contact me via calewis at telus dot net, or in the comments below. NOTE: my blog is not allowing me to do replies to comments at the moment. Thank you so much for visiting! \

Tick! Yes, I have researched collateral relatives family details as much as I have been able to find, for over 10 years. Sometimes that has been the only way I found where a family originated from, or gained an understanding of the occupations of the family members. Frequently looking through collateral relatives has helped me decide if a particular family group IS or IS NOT my ancestors - names, occupations, religions, neighbours - these details and more are so helpful. I keep details on my full family tree, and considered them "family" just as much as the direct ancestors.

In general I go up a few generations, and down several generations as well. For my various Grover Buel(l) ancestors, I had to use collateral relatives' details in order to make sense of the line. And then I followed down the collateral relatives to see if any others kept up using the surname Grover as a forename. The collateral relatives' research was necessary also as I struggled to dig through the tangled lives of the several Archibald "Archer" Walters men, their parents and their children. So this 'new' learning was actually old-hat for me, and all I'm doing is making certain that I have indeed done the research, and clarified the in-laws and out-laws!

Oh Dear: The second point about researching offline education opportunities - this is significantly more difficult for me. Retired on no pension, living with my youngest son who is unable to work competitively, means I have such a squeaky budget that my so-called disposable income is tiny. I have to figure out where to spend it, and sometimes I decide to spend it on a haircut, or on tickets to Bard on the Beach in the summertime in Vancouver. These are choices, of course, and I could choose to pinch even tighter to see if I could pull enough dollars together for a conference out of province. Don't hold your breath! I love conferences, but this is unlikely.

I have my BC Genealogy SocietyI belong to, attending meetings as well as some of the special events we put on. The LDS Tri-Stake one-day Conference held here in the Lower Mainland (Surrey, BC) in October is one I attend almost every year.

But I have my list of want-to-attend conferences, with these two at the top of the list: RootsTech, Jamboree (SCGS). And wouldn't it be a treat to go to England for their huge Who Do You Think You Are conference? Then again, there's the pull of visiting Northern Ireland... I would love to travel to my great-grandparents' village of Augher in County Tyrone, to see if I could find "something" about the Armstrong and Gillespie families there.

One day... In the meantime, doing my second year of #52Ancestors posts on my blog, Twigs and Trees, gives me a weekly opportunity to research one ancestor at a time and save documents, maps, books, photos, "properly" - labelled correctly in a standardized way, as well as use my new habit of adding to my Research Log(s), To Do lists, Document Sources to cite. I can't believe how easy it is becoming to do this in a methodical organized fashion. Every time.

Amazing. Thanks to all the helpful genealogy people on the Genealogy Do-Over Facebook group for their great templates, suggestions, helpful hints and examples. You're a great community.

And a huge THANK YOU to Thomas MacEntee for proposing such a crazy idea of actually "doing over" our genealogy tree and research work. Definitely crazy - definitely worth doing, and not as difficult as I thought it would be!

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

This year's challenge by Amy Crow is another weekly blog, but based on Themes. Last week, it was So Far Away. This week's theme is - in keeping with Valentine's Day - LOVE. Amy suggests an ancestor I feel close to, or love to research, or who seems to have lots of lovin'. Hmmm. This is a challenge. I'm chosing FW PETTYGROVE's wife, Sophia ROLAND/RULAND.We know very little about my 2nd great-grandmother, Sophia. Her surname has been spelled as either ROLAND or RULAND. We do not know where in "New York" she was born, nor do we know anything about her family, parents, siblings. Another messy brick wall which I will have to do more research on "soon". Written in my To-Do list, with where, what, why details. Other details in my Research Log. (Thank you Thomas MacEntee at Geneabloggers for the great research tools!).The Oregon Historical Society (Portland, OR) has a card on her as follows. Unfortunately I have yet to find out the basis of their information noted here:

She married in early 1842 in at the age of 18 years to a 28 year old entrepreneur, Francis William PETTYGROVE. After marrying, likely in Calais Maine, the couple stopped in New York to bring aboard various supplies which FW intended to sell to the new settlers making their way across North America to the Pacific Northwest. He was an agent with A.G. & A.W. Benson of New York, purchasing over $15,000 of merchandise to bring with him. The newly-weds immediately embarked on 10 Mar 1842 sailing around Cape Horn to the Sandwich Islands (Hawai'i), where Sophia delivered her first child, Alfred, on 3 Jan 1843. FW brought not only his new wife and items to sell, he also brought his one-year-older sister, Mary Charlotte Pettygrove, married to Phillip Foster, with their four children. Happily this meant that Sophia had an experienced sister-in-law to help her in her first child's birth. From Hawai'i, the two couples and their families moved to a different barque and in 19 May 1843 arrived in Oregon City, then moving to Portland, Oregon Territories. After 3 more children were born, they moved up the coast, where FW founded Port Townsend; and 3 more children were born in Port Townsend.In other words, Sophia spent the first year of their married life - this 18 year old girl and her 10 years older husband - on a sailing boat, pregnant, then with a small baby, born in a strange island out in the Pacific Ocean, ending up in a wilderness forest by the sea. Whew! Courage indeed. And I'll suppose definitely, LOVE as well. While in Portland region, FW tossed a coin with his partner A.L. Lovejoy for the rights of naming the new city known as "Portland". FW Pettygrove won the toss.Sophia & FW had the following 7 children, all but the first born in Portland: 1. Alfred Benson, b 3 Jan 1843 Sandwich Islands, d. 19 Apr 1878; m. 1867 to Sarah F. Shean, 4 children (all deceased as children) 2. Amelia "Millie" Ann [ancestor], b 1844, d 18 Jan 1888 Brooklyn NY; m. 17 Jan1864 Dr. Louis DeBarth KUHN, Port Townsend, WA Territories; 10 children 3. Benjamin Stark, b 30 Sep 1846, d. 7 Mar 1913; m 10 Oct 1874 to Zalia McKinley, Victoria BC, 1 son, 3 stepchildren 4. Sophia, b 14 Nov 1848, d. after 1930; m. 17 Nov 1865 to James McIntyre Port Townsend, WA; 6 children 5. Lucinda R., b 28 Sep 1866, d 5 Apr 1872 (16 yrs old) 6. Lucy Charlotte, b 8 Feb 1858, d 21 Nov 1928 San Francisco CA; m abt 1890 to Edward Stephenson, 1 daughter known 7. Francis "Frank" W. Jr., b 28 Jul 1861, d 1 Dec 1922 San Francisco CA; m abt 1885 to Isabella Burkett, 2 children knownUnfortunately, when Sophia died on 21 Feb 1889, her obituary notice in the Morning Oregonian (Portland) stated only the following minimal detail:"Port Townsend, Feb. 21. - Mrs. Sophia Pettygrove, wife of the late T.W. Pettygrove, the oldest pioneer in Port Townsend, died today after a lingering illness of several months." [note error in husband's name]The photo of the Pettygrove family (Oregon Historical Society) has been copied into a number of books and articles about the Pettygroves, and shows FW PETTYGROVE seated with wife Sophia on the right, FW's sister, Mary Charlotte Foster seated on the left, Benjamin S. standing, daughter Sophia behind, Frank Jr on the ground. Note that the standing daughter could be either Sophia or Lucy.

If you have information about the Pettygrove family, or about Sophia Ruland/Roland, I would be thrilled to receive any details via calewis at telus dot net, or in the Comments below. Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

This year's challenge by Amy Crow is another weekly blog, but based on Themes. Last week, it was Plowing Through. This week's theme is So Far Away. I think that John COX, my 11th great-grandfather, is likely one of the most distant ancestors I've found to date. Many details have come from The Pardee Genealogy by Donald Lines Jacobus, plus from records filmed at Family Search.It appears John COX was born about 1550, likely in the Pitminster region of Somerset in the southwest of England. Cox is sometimes seen as Coxe and other variants. For an interesting write-up of the Cox surname, click here.

On the 20 Jan 1576/7, in Pitminster, at the St Mary & St Andrew church, John married Alice WALSBEER (variously seen as Walsbrow, Walsheer). The various spellings seem to indicate the trials of transcribing a messy handwriting. I have not looked for other surnames in parish registers to see what I might make of a register listing. Not all registers have been put online as yet.

John & Alice appear to have had the following children (as seen in baptism records in the Pitminster church: 1. Margaret, bap 4 Oct 1577, bur 15 Sep 1596. 2. Elizabeth, bap 24 Jan 1580 3. Grace, bap 24 Mar 1582, bur, 5 Oct 1606. 4. Anstice [ancestor], bap 25 Jun 1587; m. 3 May 1614 to Anthony PARDEE; 7 childrenThe area around Pitminster is farming and the woolen trade, and it is possible that the Cox family were involved in some fashion in the trade.The Pardee Genealogy book states that John COX died about 15 Oct 1607 in Pitminster, but he was already widowed at that time. Alice may well have had other births than the four seen above, registered in Pitminster - as note the 5 year gap between #3 - 4 children. Somehow, John's death in his mid-50s seems too early. Certainly that was not unusual, because of epidemics, accidents, and the like. But to think that several of his daughters died as young women, is definitely sad. I have not found more information on the 2nd daughter, Elizabeth. It is possible she married, and I will look for more details of her, if possible. It is quite remarkable to be able to know anything at all about an ancestor from the mid-1500s in England. I look forward to continuing my searches for more details of this family. If you know anything more about the family or region, do please share that information with me, and if you have corrections - I am thrilled to correct my work on my ancestors. You can add your information in the Comments section below, or via calewis at telus.net. Thanks for stopping by to read and comment.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Potato bread, multi-grain/seed/nut bread, butter'n egg bread... Nothing makes the house smell so good. And I can make all 5 of these loaves at the same time. Then, all 5 fit into the oven at once, so it doesn't take more than one baking period. Easy.

The ones in the photo are likely potato bread. I use a very easy recipe which is so flexible that I no longer even think of reading a recipe when I make bread.

I know this is not a photo of an ancestor... but I'll be someone's ancestor at some point, and they will see that I loved to make bread. Right?

My Research Toolbox is slowly being added to as I go along in researching, using every opportunity to see if something might be helpful.

My newly named and organized files make better sense to me and are easier to use.

All documents I find are properly listed-cited-saved-named in my new naming system recommended by several genealogists: SURNAME, First Name(s) - Date - ITEM, Place - Other imp't details if needed. (Thank you Miriam & Diana, others).

All maps, photographs and more are also listed and named in a similar fashion.

All documents are properly put into my Sources template with appropriate person details (Thank you Thomas once more).

Wow. I love it! It's all making so much more sense to me now, as I move along. No more repeat searching for a detail in the same database, or searching higgledy-piggledy, or getting distracted by all those new bright shiny things. In comparison with the past decade of genealogy work, I feel calmer when I research now, more purposeful!! Wonderful.

But...

Two weeks ago I had intra-ocular surgery to remove an epiretinal membrane growing rapidly in my right eye, which is the 'only' eye with good vision. My left does peripheral vision - I suspect there's very little real estate in the brain for signals from that eye! Currently, I have dozens of floaters which make reading challenging, but I know they will slowly be dealt with as my eye clears them out. We live in wonderful times where I don't have to go blind slowly! And living in BC, my only expenses were $58 for two eye drop preparations. Our taxes at work. Thank heavens.

Because of the eye issues, I wasn't able to do much computer work this past 10 days - and then my hard drive and one RAM unit died... fixed now with help from my friend, wearing one of his hats as a computer tech guy, and it's back to normal but better! (Thank you Dallas).

I'm quite happy with my results to date, and think I have a handle on what used to cause me to get so frustrated and disappointed with my work. I also realize I'm essentially a disorganized visual-oriented person, so any system has to be very simple, very clear, in only 1 or 2 steps. So far so good.

I'm sliding behind in the Do-Over weeks, but I truly don't give a darn, because I'd already decided this Do-Over will take as long as it will take. I'm not in a competition with others, nor trying to race through the work to be done and dashing through a learning process. It will likely take all year or so.

Thanks for all the great ideas and suggestions on the Facebook page, plus I learn a lot by reading about others' problems or challenges. Learning comes from many sources, eh?

Let's see how I do by another 5 weeks or so. It's a great journey I'm on. Feel free to add your comments or suggestions below - I love to know people have been by.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

This year's challenge by Amy Crow is another weekly blog, but based on Themes. Last week, it was Closest to My Birthday. This week the theme is PLOWING THROUGH. Hmmm, plowing through... fields of grain? snow in winter? mounds of laundry? sinkfuls of dirty dishes? bushels of fruit/veggies to can? disease/death of family members? doing what needed doing no matter what? I found this particular theme frustrating and couldn't readily find an example ancestor to write about. Finally I decided to simply pick an ancestor to write about. Consider this is my own plowing-through exercise!The photograph of my 3rd great-grandfather John S. TERWILLIGER taken about 1865, was provided by a third cousin (much appreciated!). John S. TERWILLIGER, b. was 16 Sep 1800 New Scotland, Albany, New York, & apparently baptized 23 Mar 1760 in Schenectady, Albany, New York. (I suspect the middle name is Simon, for his father.) John S.'s parents were Simon TERWILLIGER & Jane (Jennetje) KOEN, both also born in New Scotland township.

John S. TERWILLIGER was the third of the 4 children, all sons, of Simon & Jane [Koen] TERWILLIGER. I can usually find one or more of these brothers living nearby on Censuses: Conrad, Richard, George. In approximately 1823, John married the first time to Margaret REID, likely in New Scotland. The marriage date is approximate and is estimated by looking at the birth year of the eldest son, my ancestor. Margaret was apparently born in Scotland and emigrated with her parents - however, this has not been confirmed. Their children were the following, born in New Scotland: 1. James M., b 30 Jan 1825, d. 18 Oct 1909, Roselle, Union NJ; m. 1851 to Harriet F. BUELL, 2 living sons [Grove & Harry] 2. George, b 26 Apr 1827, d. 1890, Sterling, Whiteside, IL; m. abt 1852 to Matilda B. Fowler, 3 girls 3. Nancy, b 13 Apr 1830, d. 2 Jan 1915, Sterling, Whiteside, IL; m. John Harpham about 1855, 3 girls, 1 boy 4. Jane Reid, b 26 Feb 1835, d. 8 Apr 1922, Boston MA; m. approx 1865 to Dr. John Skinner, 4 boys [with marvellously interesting names!] 5. Mary E., b 24 Apr 1837, d. 15 Mar 1907; m. abt 1860 to Roswell O Brown; 1 boy knownMargaret REID, his first wife, died 11 Dec 1838 in DeWitt, Onondaga, NY, when their youngest child was about 20 months old, the eldest child 12 years old. Two years later his father, Simon died. By this time, John S. TERWILLIGER seems to have moved to Centreville, NY.Shortly after, he married his 2nd wife, Jane DeGroff on 13 Feb 1841, and they had the following children: 6. Jane, b abt 1842, d. before 1850 7. Sara C, b. 5 Mar 1845, d. 26 Dec 1928; never married [schoolteacher], very close to her eldest stepbrother, my ancestor, James M., and his eldest son, James Grover "Grove" TERWILLIGER 8. Lida, b. abt 1849, d. infantHis second wife, Jane DeGroff died 14 Jun 1849 in DeWitt, likely after birth of her third daughter, Lida. Around the same time, he seems to have not only owned a farm but also a grocery store in Syracuse, as the 1855 Census lists his occupation as "Merchant", and that he owned the land. John then married for the third time on 4 Dec 1856 to Harriet Margaret Ives; no children. Harriet appears to have outlived him, and I have not yet found a death notice or obituary for her, nor a burial record. He died 31 Aug 1873 and was buried in the Collamer Cemetery, by Syracuse. His unmarried daughter by 2nd wife Jane DeGroff, Sara(h) C. Terwilliger details are etched on the same obelisk as his own information. Sarah died 26 Dec 1928.I copied down thfollowing obituary found for him from an Albany newspaper [must get proper copy!]. There were a number of "John Terwilliger" men in New York, but the names of the sons and their residences helps clinch this as being his death notice. A few details about where he lived, for how long, and when are slightly incorrect. Albany NY dated, Aug. 31, 1873--- John Terwilliger, one of the old residents of this county, died at his farm, near the city, last Sunday night, and aged seventy-three years. He settled in the northern part of DeWitt in 1836, where he resided twenty years. After living in the city about four years, he moved to a farm near Centerville, where he has since lived. Mr. Terwilliger was the father of James Terwilliger of Syracuse, and George Terwilliger, formerly of this city, but at present residing in Illinois. The deceased was a man of pure life and character, a devoted Christian, and respected by all who knew him. If you have any further information on John S(imon) TERWILLIGER, his three wives, and his children, do please let me know via calewis at telus dot net or in the Comments below. Thank you for stopping by to read and comment.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

This year's challenge by Amy Crow is another weekly blog, but based on Themes. Last week, it was Tough Woman. This week it's CLOSEST TO MY BIRTHDAY! And the lucky ancestor closest to my birthday is: Alice GAYLORD/Gaylaud, bap. 10 May 1595, Pitminster, Somerset, England. See on the right, a gorgeous photo of the Church by Mike Searle, built approximately 1300.Hugh and Joan Gaylord, the parents of Alice, had five other children. However, I have not been able to determine if any of them emigrated as well. This family surname is sometimes listed as Gayler, Gaylaud, Gaylord, and other variations. Details of the history of the surname Gaylord may be found here. This family can trace back another generation as well, Hugh being one of 5 boys of Nicholas GAYLORD & Johane ALVYN, all living in Pitminster. Hugh died in October 1614 in Pitminster. Note that the Pitminster parish registers of marriages (St Andrew & St Mary Church) have been transcribed from 1542. Clicking on this link takes you to the Phillimore transcripts, completed in the early 20th Century.Alice is one of my early settlers to Connecticut from the Pitminster area, arriving approximately 1635-1637 with husband, Richard TREAT (Trott, in England) and their 9 children. Two of their original 11 children had died before they immigrated. Some records state that Richard immigrated on the ship "Mary & John", settling in Connecticut where he had several important roles, e.g., Deputy to the General Court, Magistrate, and was also on Gov. Winthrop's council in 1663-1664. My line goes through their 6th child, the 3rd boy, Robert TREAT, 1625-1710, Governor of Connecticut 1683-98 in two separate terms.When Richard and Alice TREAT arrived in Connecticut about 1638, their children were between 18 [Honor Treat] and under 1 year [Catharine Treat]. Alice's husband left a sizeable estate when he died, and the family seem to have lived relatively well, with positions showing high social status and recognition.

As is common with the tough women who came with their husbands and children to a new country, very little is known about Alice as a person. We have her baptism on 10 May 1595, her marriage date of 27 Apr 1615 in Pitminster, her immigration with her husband and 9 living children, and an estimate of her death a year or two after husband who died in March 1668/69 in Wethersfield, Hartford, CT. I have not found a will for her as yet

I certainly didn't have 11 children, nor travel across the Atlantic ocean in a sail boat with them all, to live in a relatively new community without family support! We share a birthday, but not many other characteristics. Alice - I'm pleased to share a birthday with such an intrepid woman. Cheers! (clink)

Monday, January 19, 2015

This year's challenge by Amy Crow is another weekly blog, but based on Themes. Last week, it was King. This week, it's on TOUGH WOMAN. A challenging topic, as I've often thought many of my women ancestors past were tough women to survive large numbers of children, settle in new places, often with limited resources. But I decided to write - once again - about my "most-tough-to-find" woman, Charlotte Bortle. This will be the third post about her in 3 years... Maybe this year will be the year. You can read more details I've written on my previous two posts, on Feb. 23, 2013, and Aug. 29, 2013. Charlotte BORTLE enters my life as the wife of one of the several Grover BUEL(L)s in my line - I keep track of them by their birthdates! She is shown with her children, on censuses, and as the widow when her husband dies, and then finally, she is buried in the same cemetery. That's it. Nothing more. The gravestone photo above at right, is from Lysander Union Cemetery, Lysander, Onondaga NY [photo by permission of BArnold]There is evidence (The History of the Buells in America, her Gravestone inscription) of her birth month and year, and an indication of place on both the 1850 and 1870 Census. This gives us a likely birthdate of 10 Oct 1797, and a likely birthplace of New York... possibly in Northumberland, Saratoga, New York, or in a neighbouring county. Northumberland was settled during the late 1700s, and "Mr. Buel" arrived after 1790, according to a small history of the region.Charlotte married Grover BUELL 17 Dec 1814 in Northumberland, implying that her family were living in the region at that time or, before that date. However in the 1790 Census, I cannot find any Bortles of any spelling in the Northumberland region, although there is an Andrew Bortles living in Hebron, Washington County to the east of Northumberland. And in the 1800 Census, an Andrew Bortle is living in Greenbush, Rensselaer County, about 45 miles south of Northumberland. A potential name to research.I have tried to see if the children's names would be clues - she and Grover had 5 children - but the names are common in the Buell line, so this is not much of a clue. Here's the only odd clue I have: when she died a few years after her husband, the mortality schedule shows her age, says she was born in New York, and that her Mother and Father were both born in "N.S." - which would be Nova Scotia, Canada.

Nice clue, but so far I haven't found any Bortles of any spelling, in the region known as Nova Scotia. More research to be done. Charlotte is my Tough Woman! But I'm certain that out there somewhere, there is this great little record which gives Charlotte "wife of Grover Buell, born of parents ____ & ____ Bortle". With many more interesting details about her parents, their occupations, where they came from originally, why they came to North America, and all sorts of fabulous information. I'm waiting, Charlotte... Just sayin'... And if Charlotte is a brick wall for you too, or if you have any clues or other details I could use to follow up on, please let me know via calewis at telus dot net, or in the Comments below. Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

This year's challenge by Amy Crow is another weekly blog, but based on Themes. Last week, it was Fresh Start. This week, it's on King - anything related to the word, concept, or ancestral connection. Background: My children's father's mother's line, the RICE line, goes back to the 1632 immigrant, Deacon Edmund RICE. His grandson married Elizabeth WHITE, daughter of Resolved WHITE (who was the elder son of William & Susanna WHITE), an original Mayflower settler. Um-hm, my ex-husband has Mayflower ancestors in the WHITE family.But going back a bit further... Resolved WHITE, b. 9 Sep 1614 in Leiden, Netherlands, married first on 4 Apr 1640 in Scituate, Plymouth, Massachusetts, to Judith VASSALL, b. 1619 in Stepney, England, likely baptised in the same church as her mother; Judith was the eldest child of William VASSALL & Anna KING. Ah-ha! Here's the KING in the family. Whew... bagged one. The Vassall family had arrived in Massachusetts in 1635, arriving to settle, on the vessel, Blessing.Anna KING.We have her baptism record as 1 Dec 1594, Woodham (Woodham Ferrers) Essex, England. She likely was born within a few weeks of this date, but it is not listed on the record. It does list her father - George KING, but not her mother. Likely this is because it was common for the mother to have a 'lying-in' for several weeks after the birth, and since she was not present at the baptism, she would not be listed as such. Frustrating, however. A family tree or two online have her mother listed as "Joane". An online index lists details of a likely Joane ROWSE married to a George Kinge as follows:( Accessed: Ancestry.com. London, England, Extracted Parish Records [database on-line].):

And now doing a smidge of new searching, I find George KING's will, dated 14 Oct 1625, naming his wife as Joane, all three of his sons, listed in order as George, a daughter Judith, and his daughter Anna Vassall and his son-in-law, William Vassall. Well, well, well. It wasn't posted anywhere last year, but here it is today. From the will one can find that George KING(e) owned several different farmlands and buildings, and also was Yeoman to 'his knight, Sir Arthur Harris'. His marriage lists him as Yeoman as well.His burial record, in St George the Martyr, Southwark, Surrey, in south London on the south side of the Thames is quite clearly dated 7 Dec 1626, although I see online trees stating his death to be Dec 1625. The Church Register, "p.187-8, 1626, Burials - December, clearly shows written:

7 | George King"

I wonder if this couple teased each other about how a King married a Vassal(l)? The five children they bore - 3 boys, 2 girls - all seem to have survived to adulthood and I may do a smidge more research on those other children if only to see if any others followed Anna & William over to the new colony in New England.If you have information or corrections, please do not hesitate to let me know, either by contact through calewis at telus dot com, or in the Comments below. Thank you so much for visiting and reading this post!

Monday, January 12, 2015

I decided to jump into Thomas MacEntee's Geneablogger "GENEALOGY DO-OVER" hoping to learn - or re-learn - how to organize efficiently, research more efficiently, and start using Research Logs & To-Do lists. I think I was hiding behind the door when organizational skills were being handed out, and this challenge has dogged me all through my life. But I'm improving, and of course, these dead people aren't going anywhere so I'm hopeful. I do virtually everything online, so I have very little in paper; instead, my disorganization shows up on my computer! Messy, messy, messy, with duplications.

Pre-Do-Over: I once again watched a Legacy webinar about using EVERNOTE, with Lisa Louise Cooke. I'm now using Evernote consistently, and rather than trying to make Notebooks (folders, in other words), I am tagging with several tags as necessary for me e.g., one document about a great-greatgrandfather's document: GENEALOGY SURNAMES, England, Ireland, GILLESPIE, Research As you can probably see, I need every tag I can think of in order to find items without making my Evernote filing system as bad as my original digital files.

I made a new folder "2015 Genealogy Do-Over", inserting the following three folders, to start with:

2015 GENEALOGY SURNAMES-Documents
Already there are 7 Surname folders tucked inside to date, and I'm adding as I go...2015 GENEALOGY PHOTOGRAPHS2015 Do-Over Resource sheets These specific resources have come from Thomas as well as additional individuals on the Facebook page or, from previous webinars and other sources. I'm a bit of a packrat about resources!

I will likely need to add separate folders for Maps, Books, and perhaps other topics. I definitely do not want everything filed by surname, as I simply don't think that way - I need to know I'm looking for e.g., a Map, and go directly to one folder, not dig through various surname folders!

I downloaded FolderMarker, (free) which can colour folders, put icons on folders (including numbers), and do much more. I am beginning to use a colouring system to help me navigate effectively. So far, so good.

I also made an entirely new family tree in Legacy software, titled "New File Do-Over". Then I was ready to go!

First, I moved my (old) Genealogy folder (which includes everything) over to my GoogleDrive where I had a good amount of space. It's now called "HOLD - FOR DO-OVER - GENEALOGY". And it's marked with a red triangle warning me to not go into it except for rare, very specific documents.

Secondly, I took time to decide on a simplified but detailed document naming system for each document. Several professional genealogists and others on the Do-Over Facebook page highly recommended doing the following [but with no punctuation]:SURNAME, Name - Date (I'm using YYYY MON DA)- Item, Place(City,Co,Shire/Prov/State,Country[if needed])e.g., KING, George - 1626 Dec 7 - Burial, London, Middlesex, Englande.g., VASSALL, Anna - 1593 Jan 10 - Baptism, Stepney, Middlesex, England

Whew. That was a big decision! I've begun to use this modified system - although most people said there should be no punctuation, I need to see sections set off. We're all unique, and this is needed for me.

Thirdly, I pulled out Thomas' Research Log (an Excel version) which I had downloaded over a year ago and never used. I'd looked at it and thought about it, but never tried using it. What was I thinking! I took a problem I was having in proving a particular relationship between a woman and her father in the 1700s, filled in the details, the questions, the clues I thought I might have from specific documents found to date...

This practice research helped me see I would need to modify the log in a few ways - mainly back to my (a) vision issues, and (b) my organizational issues. Everything needs to be totally visible all at once and clearly seen. Luckily with two screens, (one of them a nice large one I received when I retired), I can work on one screen, while keeping a tree software program open on the other screen, to check back and forth.

I now have several Research Plans from the Logs I have written out. Nice. This will definitely be helpful. I already feel relieved and relaxed about using the Log. Thanks for the template, Thomas!

Fourthly, I have added myself to the new tree, adding all details of education, birth, marriage+divorce, children, surgeries, and little stories as I thought of them. Already I think I need to have a Folder, "My Story", for my children and grandchildren. Where else will they learn about playing jacks, Red Rover, Kick the Can, or my favourite 1-2-3 a'larrio ball game I could play by myself or, about my favourite little kids' book, Miss Sniff, which had velvety texture on all the cats/kittens? Or the odd jobs I had over the years? Hmmm. This is looking like another separate project to work on - perhaps next year!! But, first I need to continue the work on getting my tree (and my children's father's tree) in shape, plus have my documents etc. in good enough shape that they will make sense to others who follow me.

I'm doing more than the above four items this week, continuing with learning more, carefully working with what I'm learning, and making this Do-Over work for me in my own particular way. Every person doing genealogy has different experiences, skills, and talents, so I've seen how everyone is doing their own do-over, uniquely. So far, I'm enjoying it immensely. Slow but steady - that's me!

Monday, January 5, 2015

In 2014, Amy Johnson Crow set out a year-long challenge: Write something about "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks". Whew & Yeah!! I did it. It was a tremendous challenge, and I accomplished it, week by week by week. And along the way I found some mistakes or mixups between same-name relatives, limited searches in the past, general sloppiness, incomplete details, and more.

Here we are again. 2015, and a new challenge for 52 Weeks: a new THEME to write on, each week. No. 1 Theme is "Fresh Start" - and I'm choosing to start with my own Fresh Start, with two parts to this post.

First: In terms of genealogy, oh my do I need a Fresh Start! I need to tidy my digital clutter, eliminate all the duplicates, name things in a consistent fashion, fill in names/places/dates in an absolutely consistent way as well. There's more, but the bottom line is - my family tree (which includes my children's father's tree as well) could do with a lot of cleaning up and polishing. I suspect it will be a year-long task for me.

I've joined up with over 1,150 other genealogy nuts, committed to do a personal variation of "Genealogy Do-Over" under Thomas MacEntee's direction. I've even talked a friend into joining it, plus found two other people I know who will be participating in some fashion as well. A community. A smorgasbord of many ways to "do-over" one's genealogy. Love it!

I'm trying to go slowly - it barely got started on Friday! But I'm only too aware of the failings of my digital clutter, as listed above. I have copied my GENEALOGY folder to my Google Drive, since there was room. Almost out of sight. I'm not the most organized person - my adult kids are snorting right now if they're reading the post! - but I've improved a lot over the past few years.

Slowly I'm going to read Thomas' points, think about them, see if and how I might incorporate those ideas into my genealogy. Slowly. Then I'll think some more, and very slowly, begin to make everything a little more organized, more accessible, more understandable for others, for the long term. Because you know and I know, I won't be around forever, and I hope my kids & their kids will enjoy poking through the histories of our family lines - and making sense of what they find.

And here's the Second part to this post. Genealogy all by itself gave me another fresh start in life when I began over a decade ago, some years before I retired. I'd experienced severe emotional abuse from my mother for most of my early life, into my mid-teens, which reverberated throughout my life for years. Nasty demeaning soul-tearing experiences... and mothers aren't supposed to be mean like that, are they?! Luckily, a few decades ago, the BC Medical Plan paid for twice-weekly psychiatrist visits for years - which helped immensely. It was so reassuring to find someone competent whom I trusted.

So the original reason I wanted to get into my family history was truly to understand that I came from a much larger 'family' than just my 'difficult' mother and father. I wanted to know there was a bigger family history which influenced our ancestors and their ancestors and their...

At this point in time, I can tell you that I am feeling hugely settled inside, more emotionally balanced. And I can see the many lines, the many ancestors who contributed to the making of "me". It has been a very heartening experience, to learn about the challenges, histories, and lives of so many of my ancestors. Fascinating and instructive.

Fresh Starts. They come in many forms. Next week, the theme is "Kings"... hmmm. I'm off to look at my ancestors now.

Welcome!

Family, friends, and others - I hope you enjoy these pages about our ancestors and their lives. Genealogy has become somewhat of an obsession, more than a hobby, and definitely a wonderful mystery to dig into and discover. Enjoy my writing, and contact me at celia.winky at gmail dot com if you have anything to add to the stories. ... Celia Lewis